How Do I Tell If I'm Overtraining?

[RichardN7]

Hello all,

Not sure if I'm in the right place with this. I don't do S&C separately, all my training consists of Boxing, MT and BJJ. I started training about a month ago after I healed from an ankle injury. I've been training about 4-5 days a week and sometimes, I'd feel dead (no energy, motivation, fatigued, etc.) whereas other times I'd go 3-4 days in a row and still feel fresh.
My question is; what are the more subtle signs of overtraining (aside from fatigue and low energy) and how many days in a row should I go without rest (given that the sessions are quite intense at 1.5 hours with little to no rest).

Thanks guyz

 

[bushman505]

Gee I'm shocked to hear that your tired after training hard 5 days a week.


There's a difference between being tired and overstrained .

 

[Urban]

Its been a long time since i thought about overtraining (since most people aren't, they're just under-recovering), but some easy metrics to chart and look for irregularities include resting heart rate, blood pressure, and hand strength. Spending a couple minutes each morning with a blood pressure cuff and a grip dynamometer would help you look for whether your BP and Heart rate are elevated and your hand strength is diminished (an indicator of central nervous system fatigue).

What you should probably concern yourself with MORE are things like diet, sleep, and active recovery. Making sure you eat and sleep enough are key to recovery, and finding something physical you can do that is EASY and fun for some active recovery can go a long way to making you feel better. Go for a hike, disc golf, swim, play volleyball (no shit, the russian weightlifting team used to be pretty good at volleyball because that was part of their active recovery), ride a bike, etc. Sleep, eat, rest. WAY more important than jumping into a sphygmomanometer first thing in the morning.

 

[TheeFaulted]

How many hours do you sleep per night?

 

[PUO3]

I think more people assume having bad days is overtraining than people are actually overtraining.

Some days feel great. Some days feel like shit. Some days you think youre going to die before youre done.

Anywho, if youre feeling that bad or struggling too much experiment as were all different. Try a rest day. Try an active recovery day. Try more stretching/rolling/ice/heat. Hows the diet? Hows the sleep quality?

Tons of variables to take into consideration that could help ya out.

 

[LatFlare]

When you wake up in the night dripping sweat with your heart rate over 100 you're pushing it. Or if you get injured. Otherwise just eat/drink heaps and get a good night sleep.

 

[nephel]

Hello all,

My question is; what are the more subtle signs of overtraining (aside from fatigue and low energy)

your piss turns brown.

and how many days in a row should I go without rest (given that the sessions are quite intense at 1.5 hours with little to no rest).

Thanks guyz

it's a little known fact that replacing the letter s with the letter z when typing significantly improves your recovery from strenuous exercise.

 

[JimRussel]

You realise you probably aren't and carry on.

 

[LatFlare]

hey TS this stuff can help with the symptoms of overtraining

Spoiler

 

[j123]

it's a little known fact that replacing the letter s with the letter z when typing significantly improves your recovery from strenuous exercise.

Didn't know that, I can feel the gainz already. Would I still be natty after doing this?

 

[MandirigmaFit]

Think of overtraining as chronic overreaching.

 

[VanteMMA]

So over the past 2-3 weeks I've been experimenting with working out every day. What I do instead of complete rest is I have days of lower intensity where I'll work primarily on aerobic cardio, stretch, work on mobillity etc.

I've recently taken up capoeira which is a really fun way to stay moving on your lower intensity days. I've only taken one day off in the last 2 weeks, and that too only because I was feeling lazy and just wanted to sit and game all day, not because I couldnt go workout.

I've hit new PRs this month like crazy. Got my first pistol squat and my first strict one hand pushup. My handstands have improved quite a bit as well.

So yeah experiment a bit. When your feeling tired, go in and just work on your mobility and aerobic cardio. You could also revise simple techniques without going to exhaustion. Hit new combos on the heavy bag without going balls to the walls. Lots of options.

 

[nephel]

Didn't know that, I can feel the gainz already. Would I still be natty after doing this?

unfortunately, no. WADA lists the use of replacing s with z as a PED (Performance Enhancing Diction)

 

[j123]

unfortunately, no. WADA lists the use of replacing s with z as a PED (Performance Enhancing Diction)

Damn...

Well.. it ain't cheating if you don't get caught.